Cordless phone batteries | tips for longer lasting battery

Cordless phone batteries have been hugely developed in the past few years. The rechargeable battery types vary from NiCD (nickel cadmium), NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) or Li-ion (lithium-ion), the last 2 being the most popular and cheapest products in the market.
NiCD has some advantage against the Li-ion in high discharge rate endurance without any loss to capacity or any other damage. However, it has the memory effect problem and if not discharged to the complete drain it will lose its’ capacity overtime. NiMH rechargeable batteries have more charge comparing to other battery types, which helps to talk on the phone for a longer time period. Li-ion is the most expensive one. It has more power density compared to other battery types and doesn’t need to be completely charged and recharged after a few months use. It is also lighter which is important for every manufacturer, especially talking about notebooks, digital camera batteries or cell phone batteries.

Cordless phones can have an uninterrupted talk time life up to 10 or more hours with a lifespan of the battery up to 3 years, depending upon a model, battery type, capacity and the frequency of the phone usage.

What are the most frequent mistakes that a common user makes when using a phone device and consequently drains the cordless phone batteries several times quicker than usual? There are a few that can be easily avoided and below is the list of the solutions.
We will touch mostly upon Li-ion and NiMH batteries – they are the most widely used nowadays.

 1. If the phone rings and someone picks it up, he is tempted to walk through the whole office talking over the phone. The thought comes naturally – why bother if no cords or wires are attached. Well, that is only one part of truth. Sure, you can enjoy the advantage of wireless device and the freedom it gives. On the other hand the power is draining quickly, because of the distance from the cordless phone receiver, which requires more power to keep getting the clear signal and not losing it.

2. Do you really need the phone ringer to keep that loud? Turn it down and unless you want to make a phone conference for your colleagues – turn the speakerphone off. It will help save the battery power and prolong the usage.

3. The full discharge and full recharge is required for both NiMH and NiCD new cordless phone batteries. If you bought a new cordless phone, you will have to repeat the process of full discharge and recharge up to three times before you can use it.

4. Make sure you only recharge the phone batteries, once they are completely drained of power. The thing with NiMH and NiCD batteries is in their “memory effect” problem. If you start charging it when there is still some battery power left, the battery capacity is reduced to the point of the next charging. This way the phone battery seems to “forget” it has additional capacity, because it mistakenly calculates the next charge as a starting point, beyond which no memory is left. Hence, the wrong usage and charging reduces the memory capacity and battery life time. Luckily the memory effect problem can be solved by fully discharging and recharging the cordless phone battery two or three times in a month.

5. Avoid keeping a cordless phone near heat sources or in humid premises. All phone batteries, be it lithium batteries or any other rechargeable batteries, emit some level of heat and therefore should be placed in a cool spot to avoid overheating.

Those are the most common issues to be dealt with for a longer battery life. Above all, if you nothing helps and your battery doesn’t hold a charge, it means a replacement battery could be needed. You might replace it with one of the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) cordless phone batteries which are costly or with a simple aftermarket battery with all the necessary power specifications and compatibility.